


Restaurant Daydreams

by tkrose



Category: Bob's Burgers (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-09-24 03:55:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20351971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tkrose/pseuds/tkrose
Summary: After Bob passes away, Louise has time to think about what she's doing with her life -- especially who she is (or currently isn't) spending it with. Chloe's dark family life is revealed, and a romance ensues.





	1. Chapter 1

The funeral procession gave Louise time to think. More time than she would have liked. They drove through their little town, from Mort’s daughter’s funeral home, past the restaurant her father had handed down to her (now known as Louise’s Burgers), all the way to Bog Harbor where Linda had bought a plot of land to bury her loving husband after they had found out about the cancer.

Louise kind of regretting changing the name of the restaurant. She had changed it years before, when Bob had developed a sore wrist from flipping burgers his whole life. She just wasn’t thinking that  _ Bob’s Burgers _ was his legacy, his way to be immortal. Now that he was about to be buried in Bog Harbor’s cemetery, she felt ashamed for claiming the restaurant as her own. It wasn’t, and it never would be. It was her father’s life’s work. It had taken off just before Bob’s arthritis kicked in. Every lunch and dinner rush had the dining area packed. They even started serving breakfast - first on weekends, then daily. Louise was well off. Which turned out to be important when the medical bills hit. 

Louise had time to think about her siblings too. Tina had left the restaurant to work at  _ Spencer’s  _ at OMG Mall. She was now a manager there, with a little girl about to enter third grade and, as it turns out, all that pining for Jimmy Jr. had worked out wonderfully - they were happily married.

Gene had found love as well. He was engaged to a woman he had met while DJing at the local club. She was a bartender there who found Gene’s playlist especially fascinating. They spent more and more time together, and soon enough, Gene was on one knee with a diamond ring. 

Louise was the only one who hadn’t found a partner. Maybe it had something to do with how picky she was. She preferred women, but typically, only men hit on her throughout her shift. She had tried online dating, but she hardly matched with anyone. She was covered in tattoos and piercings. She figured that was way people were turned off. 

She occasionally found herself ranting at her employees about her loneliness. They would usually shrug and get back to work. It made her sad that work was more interesting to her employees than their boss. She understood, though. Work is bad enough. And she knew she was making it worse on her employees by complaining to them. They had their own problems, too. 

Louise had a favorite employee of hers, but she would never say that aloud. Chloe Barbash had flowing red hair halfway down her back. When she was scheduled to work in the kitchen, she would pull her hair up into what Louise thought was a perfect messy bun. Silky strands would fall out of the rubber band’s hold throughout her shift. She would tuck the extras behind her hair and get back to chopping tomatoes for the burger of the day or frying up a perfectly done batch of fries. The elegant restaurant worker would then dump the basket into their newly installed fry warmer - they had been getting so busy they couldn’t keep up with their customers without setting some aside - and coat the fries in just the right amount of saltiness. 

Louise often found herself plucking one of those delicate potatoes from the batch and savoring every salty, crispy bite. It was her own, weird, intimate moment with Chloe. 

Louise often felt at odds with her feelings for Chloe. All through high school, Louise had thought of her as a stuck-up bitch. And stuck up bitch she was. She continued to flirt with the boys who would give her test answers, and never give them more than a grateful swish of her glorious hair. 

One day, senior year, everything Louise thought she knew about Chloe Barbash was proven dead wrong. She came to school with a black eye. Chloe was immediately sent to the underpaid, undertrained “counselors” the school hired, where they pulled the story out of her bit by bit. 

Louise found out from Regular-sized Rudy at lunch that day. He quietly recounted to her what he had heard when he was in the counselor’s office earlier that morning. Louise was in shock. What she had thought about Chloe all those years since the Valentine’s Day fight had been totally, utterly wrong. 

While Chloe had been using her charm and good looks to get boys in her classes to give her answers to quiz and test questions, she wasn’t doing it just to get out of work. Turns out, her parents were relentless about her grades. If she came home with anything less than an A, well, the night didn’t go well for her. 

They were even more strict on other parts of her life. The black eye occured when her father was drunk. Over the weekend, one of her old Bible study friends had come over to spend the night with Chloe. Nobody knew the nitty gritty details, but there are rumors going around that she’s going to be sent away to conversion therapy camp. 

After that, Louise’s opinion of Chloe changed for good. Shortly after Louise took over the restaurant, when Chloe was looking for a second job in the area so she could save up money to go back to college, Louise went through the motions of the hiring process; but she knew as soon as she recognized the name that Chloe was her new employee. 

A few weeks later, back at the burger shop, Louise found herself day dreaming once more while she wiped down the same spot on the counter. Louise was thrown back into reality when she realized Chloe was trying to get her attention. “Hey. Louise, are you okay?” Louise shook her head to clear her thoughts and focused her attention on the woman on the other side of the counter.

“Yeah, I’m good.” Her cheeks reddened ever so slightly. 

“Okay,” Chloe grinned and went back to sweeping the dining area. “You scare me sometimes, you know that?”

“Huh? How do I scare you?” She flushed darker.

“All that zoning out stuff. I don’t know. You just… Don’t seem like yourself, ever since-”

“I know.” Louise shrugged and started weighing the ketchup and mustard bottles with one hand to see if they needed refilled. It was between dinner and lunch rush in late September. The restaurant was empty except for Louise and Chloe. It was a Monday, and the day had been slow, so she had sent Ricardo home a little while earlier. 

“Voila. Dining area - swept.” Louise loved how Chloe celebrated completion of even the most menial tasks. Chloe went to the cleaning supplies closet and put the broom and dustpan away. 

Louise chuckled and turned to the cash register. It was getting ever closer to dinner, so she decided to switch out drawers before the dinner rush came. It was easier to track profits when each rush was counted separately. 

Dinner came and went, and nobody came in for any of Louise’s burgers. As closing time approached, Louise shuffled through the kitchen, putting away the ingredients for the burger of the day, double checking the expiration markers on the meat and veggies, and clearing out the grease trap. 

Chloe finished filling the salt and pepper shakers and cleaning the restroom. Louise told her she could go, and to have a good night. Chloe reached for the handle of the restaurant’s front door but stopped and turned back to Louise instead.

“Um, Louise?” She called. Once Louise came out of the kitchen, Chloe continued. “Would you like to, um, maybe, go on a date sometime? Like, to the Wharf. We don’t have to, of course, it’s just a sugges-”

“Yes. How does tomorrow afternoon sound? I’ve been meaning to take a day off.” 

Chloe giggled. “I’ll see ya then.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louise and Chloe's first date.

Louise anxiously awaited the next day’s afternoon. She spent the morning trying on outfits that had not seen the light of day in longer than she could remember. She carefully examined each dress, each pair of yoga pants and off-the-shoulder sweater, each pair of flats and converse. 

Finally, she settled on the grown-up version of her childhood attire: a green skater dress with a v-neck dip halfway down her chest. She admired herself for a moment, before she realized what time it is. 

They had agreed to meet by the Dizzy Dog statue at 1 p.m. It was 12:15 already, and Louise was not about to set the impression that she wasn’t interested by showing up late. She slid on her black flats, brushed her hair and her teeth (again) and walked downstairs to the front door.

She had the urge to check on Ricardo and the rest of her employees, make sure they were handling okay before she took off. She saw Jessie, an employee of hers since she took over the joint, give her a small smile as she handed a brown paper bag to a customer.  _ They’ve got this,  _ she told herself as she rushed off towards Dizzy Dog.

Louise arrived before Chloe did. She was able to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw that Chloe hadn’t been waiting. Louise was early, and she spent the spare moments before Chloe’s arrival attempting to flatten the wrinkles in her dress from speed-walking and catching her breath.

Louise sat down on the wooden bench near Dizzy Dog and gazed at the ocean. She lost herself in her thoughts until she felt a tap on her shoulder and jumped to her feet, gearing up for a fight. When she saw Chloe was the perpetrator, she froze and started sputtering out an apology. 

Chloe looked fantastic. Her hair was braided half way down her back, and she was now taller than Louise in platform sandals made for summer. She was wearing a black cami with a red biker jacket over it and black skinny jeans. Her lips were the same deep red as her jacket. When she spoke, Louise came back to consciousness and realized that she needed to breathe again.

“Wow,” Louise whispered, her gaze fixed on Chloe’s full lips.

“Hell-o, I asked you a question.” Chloe planted her hand on her hip and tilted her head at Louise. “You doing okay, bud?”

Louise shook her head to clear her thoughts and nodded. “Yeah, I’m… I’m good. What’d you ask?”

“Would you like to ride the ferris wheel with me?” Louise stuttered. She would do whatever Chloe wanted, but ferris wheel? Really? What a boring way to start a first date. “I mean, after the Scream-o-Cane of course.”

Louise broke out laughing. “You had me going there.” Chloe giggled and led them to the booth the buy tickets. Louise tsked. “My treat.” She said and pulled out her wallet. She saw Chloe smirking and knew she had made the right call.

On the Scream-o-Cane, Louise was held hostage by the bumps and jostling of the ride, and more importantly, Chloe’s shouts of joy. Louise’s cheeks and neck darkened as the vibrations of the wooden coaster made themselves known between Louise’s legs. She shifted uncomfortably on the worn-down cushion.

Louise’s knees were weak by the end of the ride, and she had to grasp the railing for dear life on her way down the platform stairs to the ferris wheel. Once they were settled in their seats, frozen in time at the top of the ride, Chloe rested her head on Louise’s shoulder. “What should we do next?” Louise thought for a moment.

“Have you eaten?”

“Not since breakfast.”

“Me neither. There’s a family-owned diner on the other side of town. Make the best damned coffee I’ve ever had. Want to stop there?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Chloe planted a kiss on Louise’s cheek before returning to her position on Louise’s shoulder. 

The dinner at the diner turned into catching the latest horror flick turned star-gazing in the middle of nowhere at midnight. Louise was smiling deliriously at the woman next to her on the blanket, and the next thing she knew, their lips were meeting under the stars. What started as a gentle sign of affection between a couple on their first date quickly turned into something wild and passionate. By the time they pulled apart to breathe, Louise had to pant to catch her breath.

“I haven’t done that in… years…” Louise sighed and rolled over on to her back. All of a sudden, Chloe was straddling her hips, with her hands resting on either side of Louise’s head. 

“It’s been awhile for me, too.” Chloe whispered and leaned down to plant kisses along Louise’s jaw. Louise gasped and wrapped her arms around the girl on top of her. She arched her back as Chloe made her way down Louise’s body and bit and sucked at the flesh on her chest. 

“Hey.” Louise slipped her index finger under Chloe’s chin and guided her gaze up to her own. “Are you sure?” Louise chewed on her lip. She was sure she wanted it, but she didn’t want to turn into Chloe’s mistake. 

Chloe paused, leaned back onto her heels and gazed up at the night sky. When she focused her attention on Louise’s gaze once more, Louise noticed that she had gnawed at her lip hard to send a drip of blood down her chin. Chloe sighed. “Maybe… maybe not right now.” She dropped her head… in shame, Louise thought.

Louise nodded and wiped away the blood with her thumb. “It was a great night.” Chloe smiled dimly. She laid her head down on Louise’s chest and listened to her heartbeat. 

“It sure is,” she whispered. Louise placed a gentle kiss on Chloe’s head.


End file.
